Family friend Peter Buck fronted family friend DeLuca $1,000 to open sandwich shop to help pay for college 1965. Shop floundered; DeLuca opened second outlet to create aura of success. Created healthy buzz with infamous Jared commercials claiming formerly obese airline worker lost 245 pounds eating only Subway sandwiches. Today there are 27,235 Subway shops in 85 countries. Last summer a group of Subway operators sued DeLuca over control of ad dollars; suit alleges he uses marketing budget to drive up total sales at expense of franchisee profits.